12 - Trinity Loop Knots - About

Thank you for taking the time to read me. I promise to make it worth your while.

With these two loop knot variations - Trinity Loop Knot Double and Trinity Loop Knot Single, I think I have reached the pinnacle of my knot-tying ambitions.

However, before I begin, and before you prejudge this introduction as just another fusty lecture (learned and well-meaning, but drier than the desert), take a good look at the background in the above photograph of the two sibling knots.

Do any of you recognise it? Let me give you some clues …

It’s fair to say that we can all do with a little magic in our lives and, dare I say it, once you familiarise yourself with the capabilities of these knots, the skye’s the limit …

Not many folks get to learn the history behind the knots they use. They don’t need to. It’s fair to say that this pattern of knot, the Trinity Knot, came close to not being born.

For, I was using ordinary string because I had no waxed round shoelaces to practise with. String has a propensity to jam where a shoelace does not, giving the false impression that it was impossible to cinch the knot. 

Despite these setbacks, I felt like I was being encouraged to persist in what seemed like a pointless exercise. Eventually, the multi-cinching sequence was revealed to me. I felt fairly confident that my efforts would not be in vain. I had devised similar patterns previously.

Even though I was not positioning these knots for use on the finest slickest of braids, past experience taught me that any quality loop knot would need to do well in this challenge for it to be considered for use on all types of line material.

Most knots, when subjected to the ‘braid challenge’, will put in a good performance with scope for improvement. The Trinity Loop Knot Double was not just good, it was shockingly good! At the first attempt, the digital readout swung past 10 lbs b/s on my nominally 10-pound breaking-strain line (it’s 11 lbs b/s).

The initiating cinch had not gone well - 10 double-line wraps in a confined space tend to do that. I subsequently tried a lesser amount of wraps thinking that less wraps and better cinching would compensate. They didn’t! As soon as I restored the 10 wraps, I restored the digital readout of 10 lbs b/s. 

Oh well, the price you pay for such fine lines! Loop Knots such as my Tuna Knot and Double Down Knot are eminently more suited to such fine lines - even at the cost of lots of wraps.

A little ball of power ready to take on the world. From humble beginnings to championship performance …

After creating diverse loop knots that could hold to at least 90% of the line’s strength, I turned my attention to the pursuit of loop knots that could meet this prerequisite using a minimum number of wraps.

In this, I was singularly unsuccessful! After a year of fruitless attempts, I was forced to concede defeat. I pictured what I needed to find in my mind’s eye. It was to be a technically-challenging knot to tie with the ‘technical challenges’ cutting down on the need for multiple wraps. Hard as I tried, that special combination refused to materialise.

It was a change of perspective that brought me back.

Instead of adapting sea-fishing knots for my own light-line ends, I wanted to create a sea-going loop knot suited to the heaviest lines across all line materials.  Lines in the 80lb - 400lb range, that is. As some of the lines being accommodated would be super thick and inflexible, a single-line version of the knot pattern would be selectable, with a double-line version to cater for more flexible and slippery line materials.

Through long years of working with the fine slippery braid you see pictured, I have come to understand that while not all knots are suited for use with braid, those that are, will work just as well with other line types like monofilament and fluorocarbon. Therefore, when devising knots, I have tended to use the performance observed on fine braid as the gauge by which any of my creations succeed or fail.

My Trinity Knot pattern is no different.  Even though it is not intended for use with fine braid, it must still pass the braid challenge. Earlier, I cited the performance of my Trinity Loop Knot Double on fine braid.

In some ways, the performance of my Trinity Loop Knot Single is even more remarkable. Whereas it took my TLKD x10 double-line wraps (equivalent to x20 single-line wraps) to secure a full-house 10 lbs b/s, the Trinity Loop Knot Single managed to score a 9.4 lbs b/s with only x9 single-line wraps! This indicates to me the presence of some serious ‘stiction’. For a knot pattern intended for heavyweight lines where the number of wraps might be at a premium, this could be important.

LINE TESTING

If you are familiar with my other posts, you will know how much importance I give to testing knots on digital scales to optimise the performance of the tying configuration to be applied. You will also know that it is one thing to push a knot to its limits on a 10lb line with a hand-held set of scales, and a much harder task to do the same with a line running into hundred’s of pounds. So difficult, in fact, that I venture to suggest that it is seldom attempted outside the confines of the manufacturer’s laboratory.

But you know what? I think for a moderate investment in two key items, testing of these heavy lines is feasible.

Whether you are testing at home or using your best friend’s local garage, you will need to equip yourself with a set of heavy-duty digital scales that can handle 500kg / 1102lbs:

The second piece of equipment very much depends on your chosen venue. The aim is to slowly increase the tension on your loop knot allowing the knot to settle and you to take in the digital readout. An electric hoist with a variable speed control would be ideal for the job. Failing that, a manual chain-block hoist could be pressed into service:

Whichever is used, secure mounting points will be required to support the hoist (especially for home use) and the line on which the loop has been tied.

The methodology is easy enough to understand:

1. If necessary, mount the hoist securely.
2. Attach the handle of the digital scales to the lower hook of the hoist.
3. Place the loop knot on the hook of the scales.
4. Wrap the end of the line multiple times around a floor-mounted ring such that the line is able to hold by itself. No knots are to be used. The line will be sacrificial in the case of mono and fluoro as it will ‘piggy-tail’ after use. A bulk line spool should be used.
5. When ready, switch on the scales.
6. Slowly dial in the tension mechanically or electrically.
7. Note the readout and the knot configuration used to achieve it.

Now that you understand the testing process, you would logically wish to test the strength of the line in use - before any knots are tied. This will serve two purposes:

1. You avoid expecting a higher performance from your knot than the line is capable of delivering. Most manufacturers understate the performance of their lines so that they can deliver what the label states. I once found the opposite and wasted a lot of time in pursuit of what was never going to be achievable.
2. You have a chance to test your set-up before moving on to your carefully curated knots.

To test,  thread a goodly length of line through the floor-mounted ring and wrap it multiple times until it feels secure. Take the free end and wrap it multiple times around the hook of the scales. Apply the tension and watch the readout. The aim is not to destroy the line, though that could happen if it doesn’t match the claims made for it. Once it has reached the performance claimed for it, stop the upward lifting.

TIPS

• During line poundage testing, note how much line was used in terms of length to achieve a secure hold on the floor-mounted ring.
• Tie your loop knots in different configurations (noted in your notebook) in advance of testing, allowing for the length of line required to provide the floor-mounted wraps and have separation between floor and loop knot.
• This approach will undoubtedly speed up the whole knot-testing process, and also help with your muscle memory if you are knot tying in batches.

LINE WEAR

Last, but not least, a word or two on the above. Most seasoned anglers will be aware of the effects of sun and water on monofilament and fluorocarbon lines. Long-term exposure to the elements will cause them to weaken. If left unaddressed, lines can break well below what is expected of them.

But while the above has been known about for a long time, you will find next to nothing written about braided lines which have endured the same exposure, often times, much longer. Why is this?

It’s mainly due to the durability of braided lines. Even after many years of use, they can still be as strong as the day they were first spooled - provided that they have not been abraded.

So, what’s the issue?

The loop knot you first tie will still be going strong years later whilst the braided line to which it is attached gets progressively slicker. Sooner or later, fate will take a hand. It might be a shark or barracuda biting you off, or nothing more innocuous than a clumsy client getting in a tangle. Whatever the cause, you are now faced with retying that loop knot. It should be a matter of applying your tried-and-tested knot configuration to restore normal service.

But it might not be …

With ‘longitudinal’ knots like my Tuna Knot and Double Down Loop Knot, I have found that keeping to the normal formula on a worn braided line won’t deliver the same performance as when it was new. This can be remedied by testing how many additional wraps and tucks are required to counteract the additional slickness.

Accordingly, once you have determined what the optimum configuration is for the new braided line you will be using, apply the same configuration to an older version of it. How did it fare? If there was little variation in results, then, there is no cause for concern. If you see a large drop in performance, you need to consider adding extra wraps, and possibly a judicious tuck absent from your original configuration.

Once performance has been restored to what you consider an acceptable level, and its configuration noted, you will know what to do when retying one of these loop knots on a worn line …

PB

(Tying instructions to follow shortly)

11 - Trolley Wheels (cotter pins)

 A cotter pin has been designed for many applications. For some applications, they are better-suited than for others, like securing the bonnets of high-performance vehicles for easy release. The pattern of cotter pin I refer to looks like this:

When purchasing my fishing trolley, I made what I thought were rigorous checks, but not rigorous enough, it seems. The trolley came with pneumatic wheels. These may look nice, but will puncture in no time as you pull it down bramble-strewn paths. Solid wheels are what you want - but do get the spindle width accurate if you are thinking of replacements via mail order. I didn’t and my trolley now wobbles along, but, at least, its wheels can’t puncture any more!

Something else I never thought to check was how those wheels were secured to the spindle. If you are accustomed to fishing heavily-manicured areas without a stray weed in sight, a cotter pin like the above might serve your purpose. A bit like using a road car on pothole-free roads. If, however, you intend to take your trolley down overgrown barely-passable tracks, a cotter pin like the above is the last thing you want to be securing your trolley wheels. No different from opting to take your road car off-road into a moisture-heavy farmer’s field. Things will go awry very quickly! 

So it is with these types of cotter pin. At the slightest hint of long grass or bramble stem, they will get ‘yanked out’ with seemingly effortless ease.

What are your options?

Avoidance is better than cure, for sure. Be smart and don’t go for this type of wheel fixing if you are intending to go anywhere other than well-kept and predictable. But could it be that you have inherited the trolley and, being the spirited soul that you are, you want to ‘live life on the wilder side’? Not for you the manicured lakes that Gramps favoured. You are going to go ‘bush’ and you don’t see why you should fork out your limited funds on a new trolley when you have a perfectly-sound looking one ready for your use.

Fair enough. Necessity can be the mother of invention, after all.

The tried-and-tested fix I offer you is both simple and affordable. Get yourself two ladies’ hair grips - one for each wheel. Push the straighter of the prongs through the spindle hole made to take the cotter pin. Now bend the inserted prong around the spindle in the opposite direction to where it sits unused. Then take the un-inserted prong and bend it around the spindle in the direction opposite to how it sits when unused.

In so doing, you will see that you have made for yourself the shape of an anchor:

Just like the ‘anchor’ it resembles, your wheels will now remain firmly secured to their spindle whatever the terrain, and just like the cotter pin they replace, the hair clip is easy enough to remove should the need arise.

PB

10 - VIDEOS

ADJUSTABLE PATERNOSTER SWIM FEEDER RIG

(Full size)

ANTI TANGLE RUNNING RIG

(Full size)

CATERPILLAR (CROCODILE) BRAID LOOP KNOT

(Full size)

KING SLING SPECIAL / TUNA BRAID LOOP KNOT

(Full size)

SAN DIEGO JAM BRAID LOOP KNOT

(Full size)

PITZEN BRAID LOOP KNOT

(Full size)

NAIL KNOT END LOOP KNOT

(Full size)

HORNET BRAID LINE TO LINE KNOT

(Full size)

TUNA BRAID LINE TO LINE KNOT

(Full size)

09 - NEXUS

MAKING CONNECTIONS

This is a post about One-stop Data Sourcing (Structured Data Streaming - SDS). If I wish to find out about a product, fishing or otherwise, I usually have to 'surf the Net' wading through mountains of videos, blogs, forum debates until I have enough information to make a determination. 

Does that not strike you as a bit long winded? Would it not make more sense for me to be able to open an App on my smart device, whether on -line or in-store, and scan the bar code of the product that interests me so that I may see the comments, reviews, how-to videos loaded by other users?

Such technology can be applied to many kinds of products and its use is all around us right now. Not convinced? 

Well, we all use fishing line and the majority of us tie knots on our chosen line. If we are fortunate, our favourite knot will work fine on the selected line material. If we are new to angling or have decided to experiment with a different line material, we might find our favourite knots are no longer adequate. How convenient it would be to scan the bar code of the line we are considering purchasing and see all the best knots and configurations, comments, YouTube videos etc. there in the one location.

A few years ago, I created the following presentation to illustrate the above points (I'm afraid the animation is switched off). I wrote it from the perspective of a publication holding the middle ground. 

You will also see the 'Younger Me' trying his hand at braid knots ...

With Animation

(Full size)

Without Animation

Last year (2019), I revisited this idea and explored some more possibilities whilst condensing it at the same time (see link below). On the surface, the idea is fairly easy to present. The difficulty is knowing where to stop as the options are huge:

Structured Data Streaming (SDS)


Enjoy!


PB

08.1 - SPOOL LINE KNOT

 

TYING THE LINE TO THE SPOOL

Whatever type of fishing you plan to do, you will be faced by the dilemma of how best to attach your line to the spool of your reel. Unsurprisingly, it is one of the commonest questions asked by novices. It may surprise you to know that there are multiple ways of doing this and that one way is not necessarily superior to another as it can depend on what the angler wishes to achieve. I will explain.

Many are concerned about line slippage rather than the strength of the knot, particularly with braided lines. A popular recommendation is to tie an Arbor Knot and then wrap some electrical tape over it to keep everything in place. This knot will lightly secure your line to the spool and provide little resistance should you be in danger of being 'spooled'.

The alternative school of thought is to use a much stronger knot to connect to the spool. In reality, if the fish has already pulled off so much line that it is now pulling against the spool, it is unlikely to be stopped there! However, the thinking is that providing your leader is weaker than the main line in whatever type of fishing you are participating, be it fly fishing, game fishing etc., a strong knot at the spool will cause the break to be at the leader end rather than the spool end resulting in you loosing only a few feet of line rather than the whole of the line.

"So, what kind of knot should I deploy?", you ask. If you are using monofilament or fluorocarbon as your main line, you can probably achieve moderate performance by wrapping your main line multiple times around the spool before applying a Uni Knot or San Diego Jam Knot. These materials are quite grippy and will afford you some security. With braid, and particularly fine braid in the 10-12 lbs class, it's a different story. Even though the type of knot I have just described will work very well with hooks and swivels using braid, a reel spool is different. You see, all connection knots rely to some degree for their performance on the item they are being attached to - the more awkward the shape, the more difficult it will be to get a slippery material like braid to grip.

That's why you should be looking to use a 100% non-slip loop. Whatever the line material you may be using, a non-slip loop relies for its strength solely on how well you have tied it and nothing else. The width of the attachment cannot affect it.

A strong Bimini Twist would certainly be a good candidate. Make the loop long enough so that when twisted, it fits over the spool at least twice. If you are using fine braid in the 10-12 lbs class, you will need to use x50 wraps in its composition. I am not alone in thinking this. See the 100 Percent Arbor Knot.

Good though the Bimini Twist undoubtedly is, I would like to suggest an alternative loop knot that has the added advantage of being adjustable - the San Diego Jam Loop Knot:

I successfully tied my 11 lbs braided line to my metal Shimano spool with the above knot as a single loop around the spool and in crossed-over doubled loop format. Both times, it went the distance.

Once you have tied your line to your spool, you will wish to ensure that you wind the line on in the correct direction to prevent it twisting up. The following diagram shows you the correct way:

Hopefully, you will now have a better understanding of the choices available to you when making this most important of decisions.

PB

08 - REBAITABLE HAIR RIG

HAIR RIG LOOP KNOT

Using a loop as part of a hair rig is not new nor is the loop knot I am referencing. Using them together, however, may not be quite so common.

Of course, employing a Knotless Knot with a small loop to which has been affixed a Quick Stop is a tried and tested method with boilies and  pellets.

Once you are looking to use traditional baits like worms, maggots, casters, and sweetcorn in a similar rebaitable way on a hair rig, the Internet becomes noticeably quiet as to available options.

If you are familiar with the Knotless Knot, the Mohawk Rig as demonstrated by Gardner Tackle may be just the rig for you. I tried to use this rig without the Knotless Knot as you can see in the following frame:

Unfortunately, this resulted in the hair rig becoming detached from the hook because of the strain imposed by pulling the small hook out for rebaiting. With the Knotless Knot, however, there is nothing to come undone so no problem.

UPDATE - 2nd September 2020

I have been using the Mohawk Rig to good effect on my local bream. I thread some fine braid through a large piece of buoyant sweetcorn, tie one end securely to the hook eye, and tie the other end to the small hook - I use a barbless size 14. Any slack between hook and bait is wrapped around the hook shank.

Baiting the little hook with two small worms or one larger one is a firm favourite with my local shoal. Of course, red maggots are equally acceptable and sometimes the smart choice if they are proving hard to hit ...

The following rig is something of an 'open secret' which I have on no lesser authority than Drennan Fishing Tackle International. For, I wrote to them to see if they could manufacture hook links with the hair rig loop and back stop in place. They very kindly responded that they were fully extended with their current range of products but did helpfully point out that the following rig is in common use and small float stops are a popular choice for the back stop:

(click on photos to expand)

Because I stumbled upon this rig by trial and error (there being nothing much on the Internet at the time), I used a variety of different back stops ranging from artificial rubberised sweetcorn, casters and maggots, to thick strips of brown rubber band. In all cases, I used a small strip of thin red rubber band on the inside of the hair rig loop for the back stop to push the hair rigged baits up against. Friction in the back stop is the key point.

I thought the GEMINI might be an interesting variation but have not had a chance to test it yet on my local bream.

Last summer, I used Drennan's Double Strength (4 lbs b/s diameter 2 lbs b/s) as my hair rig material. I tied one end to the eye of the hook securely and a loop to the other end. I had the length of the hair longer than I needed so wrapped the excess line around the shank of the hook which, being mono-filament, promptly took on the appearance of a spring when unravelled!

The following knot - The Indicator Knot - is ideally suited, with a tweak, to allowing you to measure off exactly where you wish to position your hair rig loop in relation to the hook and how big a loop you want to have.

This means you can avoid the twisting that can accompany the use of mono-filament as hair rig material. My preference, however, is to use braid as it is more durable and has no memory.

So, here it is.

(click on photos to expand)

01 Tie a piece of fine braid securely to the eye of the hook. Form a loop where you wish your hair loop to be

02 Make a loop in your line and push the loop through the loop in the previous frame. The good thing about this type of loop is that, if you are unhappy with its position, you can just pull it out and start the loop again. I did this many times until I positioned the loop exactly where I wanted it in relation to the hook

03 Once you have positioned the loop where you want it and have it the size you want, make another loop as shown

04 Twist the loop slightly towards you as you slip it over the baiting loop. This will lock it into place

05 Trim the end off. Slip your thick piece of rubber band or small green float stop or rubber artificial onto the loop and slide to the back of the loop

PB

07.2 - PALOMAR TEST

 

Braid and the Palomar Paradox -

Uni vs Palomar vs Offshore Swivel vs Berkley Braid

This is a posting I made on Reddit in October 2021. The results should interest anyone who wants to get the best out of their knots when using fine braid. I did subsequently try to improve on my Palomar Knot results by trying variant knots with a Palomar theme, but was unsuccessful.

As you will see, the Palomar Knot is not alone in dropping its performance level when faced with a mismatch in tackle use. I have explored some of the options that an angler might wish to resort to when wishing to reinstate the lost performance.

The results obtained in the main table below can only be a general guide at best and are no substitute for testing. You should note that I chose a typical rounded swivel with which to conduct these tests.

Noteworthy, too, is that using a size 16 diamond-shaped swivel eye definitely confirms the superiority of one of the knots tested while downgrading the performance of the others.

Despite the width of the fine braid matching the diamond-shaped swivel eye, the narrowness of the point of contact seemed to have a generally adverse effect on what had been successful variants. Curiously, a standard Palomar outperformed a full-house Palomar variant under these conditions.

Disappointing and unexpected as these findings were, with only two knots advancing beyond 8 lbs b/s on the diamond-shaped swivel eye, they nevertheless confirm a long-held opinion of mine when it comes to using fine braid:

Under unfavourable conditions, a doubled-line knot with an additional wrap around its attachment is easier to tune than a single line variant.

Thus, using either the doubled-line Fish N Fool Knot with 8 turns and double and single reversed half hitches behind the knot, or a 30-twist Tuna Knot with an additional wrap, 3 tucks and 30 reversed half hitches behind the knot, I was able to achieve my target of 10 lbs b/s when I tested my loop knot against each of these knots to complete my intended rig:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_xubC-Y7phYRVVnRbDKZVx3G3UZpZUUt/view?usp=sharing

Hi Guys,

In my previous posting, I was writing about the trap that the unwary can fall into when using a braided line much thinner than the hook or swivel it is attached to. I used the Palomar Knot to make the point because its purity of construction means that some of the variables present with other knot patterns are excluded.

One of my respondents asked if I wouldn't mind doing a comparison between the (Fish N Fool) Uni Knot and the Palomar Knot because they had heard that the Uni was stronger. We've all seen the videos on YouTube. Knot Wars is a favourite of mine (don't know if they are still doing it). Most standard patterns of connection knot such as the Uni allow for a variable number of turns. By contrast, the configuration of the standard Palomar is fixed. In any head-to-head, using the same equipment, the Palomar will perform to its capability, but the results of the Uni will be variable depending on how many turns you give it.

By deliberately mismatching the braided line to its attachment, you can get a better sense of the latent capabilities of each knot, and what is needed to 'up their game'. Opening up the test to some other popular patterns gives more data for comparison, and helps to identify how much or how little you have to tune them to make the grade. As you see, they can all 'make the grade', so you will also be considering other aspects such as ease of tying, core strength, consistency etc. If this sounds overly complicated, I will give my opinion on each knot later.

For the moment, let me give you a much simpler summary - Small Block V8 vs Big Block V8. Small Block needs plentiful fettling to deliver; Big Block (no substitute for the cubes) needs nothing doing to it. The power is more easily accessible, and should that be insufficient, a little fettling will bring plenty more ... I think there is one stand-out knot from my selection that is already equipped with the knot equivalent of a Big Block V8 and another one that just needs a tweak in the number of its turns to fall into this category ... 

Before I give you my verdict, I think a few prefatory remarks are in order so that you can replicate my testing if you wish.

• I said I was only going to test each knot x3 times. In fact, it was many more times than that. Sometimes I couldn't get a clear read on the intermediate decimal values because my arm was shaking too much (I lacked the arm of my comfortable armchair to 'steady the ship')
• Any extended period of knot-testing usually turns up a 'freak-knot' result that you can't explain and can't replicate. It doesn't happen often but will skew the results if not representative. Similarly, I have gone for a re-tie where I felt I tied a poor example
• Line - the line I am using for these tests is Matrix 10.9 (when new, it will test to a little over 11 lbs). It starts off slick enough and just gets slicker with use. The other brand was thinner and subjectively a little slicker out of the box: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WIupyX0gW-EZvKKHTJbzxvRCiFYMLobq/view?usp=sharing

• Scales - note the judicious use of the rubber band (or kiss goodbye to your snap swivel sooner or later): 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ikW21WkMa6SdKVjklwfM-EyxYLyc9yx9/view?usp=sharing

• Snap Swivel - The line diameter is 0.08mm. The swivel itself is 3 mm wide at the eye and 12mm long on just the swivel (sorry, don't know its size but reckon it to be an 8 or 10). You can't tell much from the photo but a 15 lb braided line is approximately the same thickness whereas the 11 lb line I am using is visibly thinner to the naked eye: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dt0-UkjMUip8ANvxPwOqB2VDn_SyQABS/view?usp=sharing

Breaking Strain Percentages

Test Results

 

Analysis

This is a sub for Beginners. It's been a long time since I was a beginner starting out, but when it comes to the world of fine braid, I still feel like a beginner! I try to put myself into a beginner's shoes. If I am transitioning to braid or starting out with braid, what would I want to know?

After being counselled to use braid-friendly knots because of the slickness of the material, I would feel that that was all I needed to know - I did. Later, when I trained myself to use my scales at every opportunity where fine braid was in use, I observed that tying fine braid to swivels could be an issue and that I needed to check whatever knot I was using and 'fettle' it as necessary. Only now can I see a cause and effect. It's not something you see discussed. Most seasoned anglers match line to attachment so there is not really a problem to be solved. As a beginner, you don't know this. You tie a Palomar as advised. If you are lucky, you make the correct match-up and the knot holds firm. If not, the first decent fish that comes along is lost. As a beginner, you just chalk it up to your inexperience.

An old proverb covers it better than any words of mine: 'Forewarned is to be Forearmed'.

1. A bad or underperforming knot on a heavier line will probably not be as detrimental to the end result as it could be on a light line - simply because you have more margin for error. My top-weight hook length is 8 lbs b/s. Whatever knots I use on my 11 lbs line are tested to ensure that they can get to 10 lbs which will give me more of a cushion than 9 lbs and guarantees the hook length breaking first
2. All the knots tested reach my benchmark 90% - some with less effort than others
3. Why no Trilene Knot? I guess an oversight. It's actually recommended by the manufacturer of the braid I use. I don't like making assumptions because testing should be the true arbiter. Being a single-line construct, I wouldn't expect much better results than a Fish N Fool Knot with a Uni or San Diego Jam Knot added. Based on previous testing, I think with a similar-sized swivel years back, I can recall hitting the 10 lbs bench mark with something like x30 turns. It's a safe bet to say that with an extra wrap or two thrown in, the number of turns could be reduced to half that amount and still hit the 10 lbs mark
4. Palomar - in standard configuration, it is the weakest of all the knots tested here. Yes, in the guise of a 'throw-the-kitchen-sink-at-it' Nanofil, it gets there. The line has to be suitably lubricated and a long tag allowed for so that you can grip it and exert the necessary force needed for cinching. It is the least tuneable of all the knots and proved really difficult to take over the 10 lbs finishing line. Yet when used with a balanced setup, it performs strongly and is not in the least bit unpleasant to tie. A true Jekyll and Hyde of a knot
5. Fish N Fool Uni - even under these adverse conditions, a 'standard' Fish N Fool Knot with x14 turns is managing approximately 75% of the line's strength to the standard Palomar's 64%. Note the small increase in performance by adding x30 reversed half hitches (x30 may be 'overkill' but I think you need at least x20 to make a difference). This is a fine-tuning step when compared to the more advantageous step of adding additional wraps around the swivel eye as shown with the Fish N Fool +3 wraps. In the same way that a Fish N Fool Knot provides more grip with braid than a regular Uni Knot because of its one extra wrap, so adding three extra wraps to make four wraps total makes for a superior Fish N Fool Knot - you are equipping it with the extra grip found when any double-line knot like a Berkley Braid Knot or Tuna Knot goes from having two strands around the attachment to four. As far as the Doubled Line Fish N Fool goes, let me just say that Phil became Pip with his 'Great Expectations'! It's not a variant I had tied before though knowing how robust a Doubled Line Uni Knot could be, I was keen to see the results. They did not disappoint. Clearly this is a Big Block knot in all but name! I kept to the x7 doubled line turns to match the x14 turns of the single line variant. I imagine that an increase from x7 to x10-x12 should guarantee the full 90%+ each and every time without too much effort at all
6. Offshore Swivel Knot: https://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/offshore-swivel-knot - a consistent performer at the 80%+ level. Until you have tied it a few times with fine braid, it can seem fiddly. The trick is to start with each of the twisted strands facing opposite each other across the eye of the swivel and keep good control of the swivel as you make the turns. Cinching is relatively easy up to and including x12 turns. Above this and it needs a lot of massaging. A surprise entry because it had performed well in previous testing and I wanted to see what it could do. I think you would need practice and more half-hitches to consistently hit the 'heady heights' of 90%. Whilst it might be unknown to some of you, just remember that it 'hits the ground running' unlike some better-known patterns
7. Berkley Braid Knot (modified) - I have saved the best until last. You don't see many values listed because it doesn't need them. It's that good! This is the second time I have tied this variant. Both times it pulled straight to the bench mark 90% plus. It's as good as my modified Tuna Knot without need of additional tuning. It tends to fly under the radar in the company of other knots. But it's a genuine Big Block V8 of a knot. Takes a little practice to master - just like the real thing, in fact - but once you get the hang of it, the results are awesomely consistent!

Tuning

I was intending to write a few words on this subject, but then I thought that to do so might detract from the central tenet. Which is? Try to match the thickness of your braided line to your attachment. If you do this, all the braid-friendly knot patterns we recommend should work well in standard form. Stray from this path, and the performance of your chosen knot could be a little or a lot below what you are expecting - particularly when you are using a fine line. After all, you would think twice about driving your road car in terrain more suited to an off-road vehicle.

Taking the above analogy, a step further, you would happily drive your off-roader on the public highway confident that should you meet something unexpected like mud or snow, you would have the vehicle to cope with it. So, it is with knots. Start off with a knot that is more capable than it needs to be for most situations, and should you make a misjudgement about the appropriateness of the line you are using, the extra performance might get you out of trouble.

If in doubt, reach for the scales. Hooks and snaps are easy enough to test. If a large mismatch is in the offing because you want to tie directly to the eye of your lure, but must keep the line thin, you might consider using a high-performance braid loop instead. It should offer you a good level of performance without the need to test. A high-performance terminal knot, no matter how good, will eventually run out of grip if the mismatch is too great. A high-performance loop knot is limited only by your ability to tie it and the strength of your line. Whether there is a tackle mismatch or not will be an irrelevance because the integrity of a loop knot is dependent on your ability to tie it and nothing else.

Hope this was useful.

Phil

PB